The present invention relates to a practice drumstick and its method of use.
The conventional solid wooden drumstick ranges from about 15" to 18" in length and includes butt, shaft and tip portions, the butt and shaft constituting roughly 85% of the total length, with the remaining 15% tapering to a tipped endpoint. Such a drumstick has long been the most widely used type of drumstick in the percussion field. The popularity of the wooden drumstick is based upon its optimal mix of characteristics with respect to sound production, weight, distribution of weight, durability, flexibility, resilience, shock absorbability and overall "feel." Wooden drumsticks nonetheless suffer from certain inherent disadvantages, chief among them being chipping, splintering, cracking and warpage.
The prior art is replete with examples of other and non-conventional drumsticks directed toward better fulfilling one or more of the above design or performance criteria while attempting to avoid the inherent disadvantages of solid wooden drumsticks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,438 to Handel, for example, discloses drumsticks made of woven cotton fabric impregnated with phenolic resin. Such drumsticks are said to possess superior durability, weight and stability, and to exhibit better resilience, flexibility and percussion absorbability. Heiskell's U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,544 is another example of the impregnated, woven-fabric type of drumstick.
Yet others, such as Cordes in U.S. Pat. No. 3,722,350, have attempted to substitute metallic material for conventional hard woods, and introduced the hollowed-out, rather than solid, body portion. Such approaches claim to achieve a sound and feel comparable to wood but with an improved durability quotient.
Lucas, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,241, represents the school of drumstick innovators that emphasize the use of plastic as the primary component material. Plastic drumsticks produce a lighter, brighter sound and overcome the breakage problem of wooden sticks; however, while stronger than wood, plastic is also much heavier.
The weight problem of plastic drumsticks has been addressed by hollowing out the longitudinal body portion, then adding back structural ribs (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,241 to Lucas), longitudinal reinforcing fibers (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,052 to Coyler et. al.), or both structural ribs and reinforcing fibers (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,485 to Peters).
Thus, the present state of the drumstick art provides a wide variety of so-called performance sticks, ranging from the simple one-piece, solid wooden stick to sophisticated multi-piece, metal plastic combinations of varying size, shape and color. All of the prior art drumsticks, however, share the common goal of optimizing, through tradeoffs, the properties of tonal reproduction, weight, weight distribution, durability, flexibility, resilience, shock absorbability and overall feel. This path of drumstick development has obscured a longstanding and practical problem in the percussion field; namely, the production of a drumstick whose primary attribute is quietness.
By focusing on substantially reducing the sound produced by the stick, an emphasis very much counterintuitive to the usual purpose of a drumstick, I have developed a drumstick suitable for practice playing use while retaining the basic size, shape and overall feel of performance sticks, thus serving to keep one's performing skills sharp. At the same time, I significantly decrease sound output so as not to disturb others engaged in routine living activities, such as watching television. This difference in function is the basis for the below set forth differences in structure which distinguish the instant invention both from the relevent prior art and other arts such as police billy clubs, pool cues, golf clubs, baseball bats, and pencil and pen housings.
The invention is believed to be properly classified in Class 84, Subclass 422 S.